The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument, first raised in the 19th century, that someone other than
William Shakespeare of
Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a
fringe belief. Anti-Stratfordians believe that Shakespeare was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason did not want or could not accept public credit. The controversy has spawned a vast body of literature, and
more than 80 authorship candidates have been proposed, the most popular being
Francis Bacon,
Edward de Vere,
Christopher Marlowe, and
William Stanley. To the claim that Shakespeare lacked sufficient education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court for a writer of such eminence and genius, scholars reply that there is much
documentary evidence supporting his authorship—title pages, testimony by contemporary poets and historians, official records—and none supporting any other candidate. (
Full article...)
... that on his 48th birthday, artillery officer Bjarne Keyser Barth was tasked by his commander with surrendering a fortress to invading German troops?
This Wikipedia is written in
English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains
5,391,253 articles.
Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.